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1953 Buick Wildcat I


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How many versions of the 1953 Buick Wildcat I show car were built? I am assisting a friend in writing a Motorama book. We know there was a white version with fender skirts and a black version with fender skirts. We know the white version with skirts is in the Bortz collection. We also know there was a white version without fender skirts. Was it a third car or was it made out of the black skirted version? Also we have heard rumors that there was a black version without skirts. So were there two, three, or four cars built? Charles D. Barnette

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Guest sintid58

I saw the one in the Bortz collection at the Chicago car show and I don't remember it having fender skirts. Not that my memory is all that good.

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Charles, it might be worthwhile contacting the Buick Gallery and Research Center at the Sloan Museum in Flint. Many of the Buick Motor Division records were transferred to the Sloan Museum at the time that the Division headquarters were relocated to Detroit. The Sloan Museum also has the XP-300, Wildcat II, and Centurion show cars in its collection.

Are you familiar with "Buick -- The Complete History" by Lawrence Gustin and Terry Dunham? This is the exhaustive record of Buick history. I have not yet had opportunity to check my copy for any further information on this subject since you posted this topic.

The Wildcat I was the subject of an excellent and beautifully illustrated article in the December, 1988 issue of "Collectible Automobile" magazine. Again, I have not checked my copy for details regarding other versions of the Wildcat I, but will plan to do so.

I wonder, however, whether all of the photos you refer to -- and I've seen some of these as well -- are really all the same car, but with varying paint schemes and with/without fender skirts. I hope that you will report back to us if you learn any details from other sources.

Thanks for coming here to post this question. I hope that you will also keep us posted as the book on the GM Motorama nears completion; this sounds like something that will be required for my personal library.

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